5 steps to Strategically Develop and Market Your Brand
A company's brand development process goes beyond a logo, a tagline, or your brand colors. Identify target audience and value proposition to help your business create a strong, cohesive brand strategy.
Branding is a process of shaping the feelings and expectations that customers associate with your company.
So how does your company develop a brand that resonates with people, reflects your mission, and represents what you do?
A brand development process involves creating and strengthening your professional brand.
Use the following 5 steps to strategically develop and market your brand.
Determine your unique selling point (USP)
Create a brand positioning statement
Establish a brand story
Develop collateral around your brand
Center your marketing strategy around your brand
Step 1: Determine Your Unique Selling Point (USP)
Your USP is the reason why customers should choose your company over competitors. Think about what makes your products, services, and/or values stand out from the rest and incorporate this into your messaging. Defining your unique selling point will help you define who you are as a company and what sets you apart from the competition.
Step 2: Create a Brand Positioning Statement
Your brand positioning statement communicates to customers how your brand is different, relevant, and better than other competitors in the market. It should be concise and clearly define who you are as a business, why customers should choose you over competitors, and what values you stand for.
Step 3: Establish a Brand Story
A brand story gives customers an inside look at your company's values and mission. A storytelling strategy should be woven into your branding communications to help evoke emotion in prospects and build relationships with customers.
Step 4: Develop Collateral Around Your Brand
Collateral is anything that helps deliver your brand messages, such as website pages, email campaigns, brochures, and product packaging. Designing collateral around your brand will help reinforce it in potential consumers’ minds.
Step 5: Center Your Marketing Strategy Around Your Brand
Once you have developed an overarching branding strategy, create a detailed marketing plan that takes into account different channels and tactics such as social media, content marketing, email marketing, and traditional advertising. These should all tie back to your brand’s mission and values.
By following these steps and incorporating them into your overall strategy, you will be able to create an effective brand development process that resonates with customers and helps your business grow.
With a clear brand strategy, you will be able to effectively communicate to customers what makes your company unique and stand out from the competition.
To help you use your position statement and brand story to create marketing elements, such as videos, pitch decks, or info sheets, that align your brand.
Marketing is how you test your brand strategy. Your brand doesn’t have to be set in stone.
As you market, you might discover that a different audience resonates more with your product or service. Or you might find that consumers appreciate something different about you that becomes your new USP.
Stay committed to who you are as a brand, but stay flexible enough to change what isn’t working and go in a new direction if need be (or consider a rebranding activity).
Develop a Brand That Explains Your Value
A brand development process shapes the way your customers view you. And it needs to be alive in every step of your business.
Great branding doesn’t happen by accident. You have to view your brand from a big-picture stance, making sure that every step aligns with your vision, and that every element works together.
Through a 5 step process – determining your company’s USP, creating a brand positioning statement, establishing an authentic story around your brand, creating consistent branding collateral, and developing a marketing strategy cohesive with your brand – you can experience differentiation and success.
